Album, Single and EP Reviews


 

 

  To Sleep and Love by KLAS


To Sleep and Love cover art

Artist: KLAS
Title: To Sleep and Love
Catalogue Number: Series Two #23
Review Format: CD
Release Year: 2008



I would love to be shown to be wrong, but from my experience with Swedish artists, there are precious few that you would actually recognise as being even remotely Scandinavian. Why?
 
I blame Morrissey. If anyone has a problem with that, you know my e-mail address. There's not a lot to be said for front man Klas's laconic delivery, asides from the occasional turn of phrase that leaves the listener with a smile on his face. Not entirely dissimilar to fellow abstract Swede Jens Lekman.
 
KLAS, however, draw more from roots-roc k influences. With most songs barely clocking in at two minutes, there's a certain cuteness to these songs that may lead you to listen again. However, no song on the album really stands out from the rest and I think that might well have been the intention.  "Nightswimming", though, is simply offensive to the ears. That might have been intentional too. "The Canaries" is a pleasant and incisive piece of twee-pop and the prime contender for the standout track on this album. Short, sweet and to the point.

By no means a bad album, it nonetheless lacks that enduring quality that separates the great from the good. This is a good album.

 


www.myspace.com/klas1
Reviewer:
Review Date: February 27 2009